Lumia 800 - Great Design, Poor Audio Quality

Its a shame when it happens. You find something you love, you buy it and take it home - then when you get home you realize you just bought a lemon.

RME Fireface UCX

If you know your audio interfaces, theres no doubt you've heard of RME. The German audio company has been pumping out high quality audio hardware for years, and is unquestionably among the most well known in the industry. At this years NAMM, RME introduced their all new compact interface, the UCX. As always, the interface is available for both Windows and OSX users, and will begin shipping immediately. 

Mojave MA-200

David Royer and his company Royer Labs have a great reputation for their fine line of ribbon mics. When the time came to manufacture David’s designs for non-ribbon mics, Mojave Audio was formed to create and market that brand exclusively. And my God what an amazing microphone it is...

Beats = Overrated

So i finally got a chance to listen to Dr. Dre's Beats headphones by Monster.
Yeah, the same Monster that charges $100 for a 4ft HDMI cable -_-
I figured instead of posting a full review, id just sum up my feelings in a nice long rant...

#1 Album Of All Time

So I've been looking through Rolling Stones 500 greatest albums of all time. Here are the top 5.

5. Rubber Soul - The Beatles

4. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan

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3. Revolver - The Beatles 

2. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

Now, its pretty obvious these were all released decades ago, and there certainly seems to be a "Beatles Bias". But I can guarentee you if I were to ask people born in the 80s and 90s what their favourite album of all time is, they'd come up with very different responses. So, let me here it,

What Is YOUR #1 Album Of All Time?

ITS FINALLY HERE!

 After years of waiting... and I mean years... Imagine-Line has finally released FL STUDIO 10!

Whats new?

• 64 bit plugin support - The Wrapper now automatically detects 64 bit plugins and opens them in 64 Bit 'Bridged' mode (see below).
• 'New pattern' (+) button - On the Channel Window / Step Sequencer. Add a Pattern and open the naming window.
• Small scrollbars in editors - Smaller scrollbar for the Piano roll, Event Editor, Playlist etc. See F10 > General Settings.
• Horizontal zoom - Improved Playlist, Piano roll & Event Editor.
• Improved memory management - Two changes have been made to lower demands on FL Studio's memory allocation. 1. 32 & 64 Bit VST plugins can be opened in 'Bridged' mode. The maximum memory available to the plugin will be at least 2 Gb for 32 Bit Windows and up to 192 Gb depending on your version of 64 Bit Windows. 2. Audio Clips & Sampler Channels Keep on disk option now opens the sample in a separate memory allocation. Each Audio Clip / Sampler Channel can now load a sample of at least 2 Gb for 32 Bit & 64 Bit Windows versions.
• Improved audio options - ASIO: 'Mix in bufferswitch' and 'Triple buffer' may improve performance with some ASIO drivers. ASIO/Primary Sound: Revised 'Playback tracking' options to help with alignment of visual & recorded events where soundcard problems exist.
• Autosave / Autobackup - FL Studio can now be set to back up the current project at 5 to 15 minute intervals. Never lose project data again!
• FL Studio Fruity Edition - Now gains access to Playlist Pattern Clips for unlimited scoring and automation flexibility. 

Revised Playlist

• Resize Playlist tracks - Ctrl + Middle-click on Playlist tracks to resize them.
• Preview/playback tool in Playlist - Press Alt + Right-click to preview Audio and Pattern Clips.
• Time segment options - Beats has been added to Piano roll 'View > Time segments' options. Time segments shade the background.
• Lock Playlist tracks to clips - Right-click on Playlist tracks to lock and mimic Block-tracks.
• Shift + Mouse Wheel - Move Channels, Mixer Tracks, Playlist Tracks & Patterns
• Playlist Preview Tool - Play back clips by clicking on them with the Playback tool.
• Individually sizable Playlist tracks - Any or all Playlist tracks can now be resized by dragging on the divider between the name areas. Individual tracks can also be locked at a desired size.
• Live Playlist marker types - Playlist Tine Markers can be set to Loop, Pause or Skip for innovative live performances.
• Ctrl+B - Duplicates selection, zoom-range, all (no selection). 

Piano roll

• Save as sheet music - The Piano roll Menu option File > Export as score sheet saves the current Piano roll as a .pdf in standard musical notation.
• Magic lasso - Circle mouse around Notes or Clips without clicking to make a selection. Time segment options - Beats has been added to Playlist: View > Time segments options. Time segments shade the background.
• Edit Ghost notes - Double Right-click on Ghost note or X1 button.
• Cycle Piano rolls - Shift + H or J cycles through data in Piano rolls.
• Vertical zoom - Vertical zoom now possible & notes include properties view.
• Note stretch handle - On note selection to rescale length
• Piano roll wave-display - Displays waveform behind notes to align notes to audio events.
• Piano roll & Playlist sync - Editing in the Piano roll while in Song mode will now move the Playlist transport in sync with the Piano roll.
• Ctrl+B - Duplicates selection, zoom-range, all (no selection).
• New note view - Rounded notes view.

 

Mixer

•  Larger mixer view & waveform metering - The Mixer View options include 'Wide tracks' and 'Waveforms'.
•  Fully automatic PDC - The default for new projects, automatic Plugin Delay Compensation updates the PDC settings when changes are detected.

To be honest, my favourite part is the 64bit support... the number of times my FL Studio has crashed because my plug ins were too large...

FL STUDIO seems to be finally catching up with the likes of Cubase, Logic etc. They're not quite there yet but they appear to be getting closer and closer.

Introduction

Hey everyone, Id like to take a moment to introduce myself to you all. As you can see the title of the blog is "A Musical Mind". See, im a musician, although technically as of right now im more of a songwriter / music producer. Ive been writing and producing since i was 13, and just a few years ago i attended Berklee College Of Music to get my masters certificate in Music Production. I decided to start this blog because im rather opinionated when it comes to all things music. From time to time i'll make moments on artists, songs, lyrics, and even review or announce various music products. Thanks for reading.